Late PK dooms Saxons vs. Larkin
By Gary Larsen

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Dominate and lose. It’s a prospect that every soccer team faces, every time they take the field.

That nightmare scenario played out for Schaumburg on Saturday, in a Class 3A regional title game against Larkin played on the Saxons’ home field. Despite establishing a suffocating presence on Larkin’s side of midfield for pretty much the entire contest, Larkin came away with a 2-1 win.

Crosses, freekicks, corner kicks, through-balls, passes sent ahead from various angles – the Saxons did everything they needed to do in the second half except the most important thing: score more than one goal.

“It was the same thing in the first half. We were all over them,” Schaumburg coach Hamid Mehreioskouei said. “They got one dead ball and a guy scored on a header from outside the box. Those were the two chances they had. It’s such a difficult loss because today, I don’t think the better team won.”

Schaumburg (7-8-3) may have been seeded 12th in this year’s Class 3A York Sectional, but the Saxons were the dominant attacking team throughout the contest against third-seeded Larkin (14-5-4).

“They liked to play but we didn’t let them play. Their two forwards like to play with their back to goal, so any time they got the ball we had our defenders pushing them into our midfielders that were coming back, so they were turning the ball over,” Mehreioskouei said.

“We finally got healthy (for the postseason) but now timing becomes an issue, so we tried to build chemistry as fast as possible. But that’s no excuse.  We didn’t finish our opportunities, and you have to finish your chances.”

Larkin goalkeeper Aldair Dominguez certainly had something to do with keeping the Saxons to a single goal, as he made a pair of acrobatic saves in the second half on Schaumburg shots seemingly headed under the crossbar.

After Larkin’s Michael Gomez put his side up 1-0 in the first half, it wasn’t until the game’s 58th minute that Schaumburg senior Kacper Wasilewski finally got a shot past Dominguez, set up by a cross from Logan Walther.

Schaumburg’s Jessie Lopez and Alan Santana were also prominent in keeping steady pressure on the Royals, but one goal was all the Saxons would find to the final buzzer. Larkin’s game-winning goal came on a penalty kick taken by Erik Rodriguez, on a foul in the box called during one of the Royals’ rare trips into the Schaumburg penalty area.

“That might have been the one time they crossed midfield in the second half, and they got a (PK) out of it,”Mehreioskouei said.

Schaumburg will say goodbye to 11 senior, including senior captain Wasilewski.

“He’s just an all-around great kid,” Mehreioskouei said. “He’s No. 1 in his class and he’s just a genuine kid. The nicest kid you’ll ever meet in your life. He doesn’t have a mean bone in his body. We’ll miss his presence. He doesn’t rip on anyone and he’s been a total pick-me-up player.”

“We’ll also lose Carlos (Sarasti), Raul (Alcala), the Walther brothers (Collin and Logan) – there’s so many of them, and we’ll be a new team next year,” Mehreioskouei said. “But we’ve got talent coming back.”

Seniors Mary Faleni, Matt Shadel, Jennings LaBerg, Mike Ralston, Christian Huerta, and Ryan Murphy also put a Saxons’ uniform on for the last time on Saturday.

Schaumburg’s future lies in the hands of juniors Santana, Dan O’Connell, Kristian Pawlikowski, Jose Hernandez, Christian Mikalowski, and Matt Rushing will return to the fold next season, along with sophomores Luccas Greco, Kevin Murphy, and Phil Minecci, plus one of the most dangerous attacking players around in the freshman Lopez.

Mikalowski is also one of the best defenders you’ll find roaming any high school pitch, but an injury kept the junior out of the Schaumburg lineup until late September this season.

“We’ve also had a couple quality freshmen playing on our jayvee and that team made it to the championship game of their tournament, so we’ve got some talent coming in,” Mehreioskouei said. “We just need some goal scorers.”